The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1887-09-18

nio Otu n0etn6ulem ne, hkpok bkis y tuotO tof
sonable religion. Il seemed TO him to rep
resent higher development, the final
stage Of the evolution which has taken
place In China during Its 1000 years Of ma
tonal existence, 90 In other countries
and civilizations, through mythology,
superstition witohcraft, established religion,
and philosophical religion" Though China
"has had at least half dozen religions moro
than any other nation" "none OF them was
rational enough TO become the abiding faith
Of an intelligent people; but when we be-
gan to reason we succeeded In making 80
ciety better and its government more pro-
tective, and our great Reasoner, CoNFUcrUs,
reduced our social and religious ideas into
book form, and 30 perpetuated them"
This religion, he contends, produces far
better practical results than Christianity,
and some of them he proceeds to enumerate.
"The Chinese are superior In social admins
tration and social order" Among the
40o,0 900 Chinese. there are fewer muir
ders and robberiee In a year than there are
In New York State" It's people are the most
lightly taxed in the world, and yet she has
not q single dollar Of national debt" There
is more wickedness in the neighborhood Of
single church district Of 1000 people in New
York than among 100000 heather, church,
less and unsermonized." There is more
heart-breaking and suicides In the State Of
New York in year than In all China"
These Of course are mere assertions, and
before we could accept them as true, we
should need to compare the actual statistics,
as we cannot do. Mr.. YAM PHou LEE, for his
part, places little value on them even II true.
He says that the slight theological differences
among Christians, and their failure to carry
out their principles In their social Life, did
not lessen the impression made upon him
by tho truths Of Christianity; for
he Disseminated between Christianity
In the abstract and Christianity in the
concrete" and also between its correct ap-
pncation and Its perversion." Nor did he set
up his own reason against the reason OF the
Bible, In which he believed as an inspired
book. He simply had the unquestiontng
faith which Is tho necessary prerequisite to
the acceptance Of Christianity. II accepted
the truth as It IL told In tho Bible" he says,
land confessed that there wero things that
I could not comprehend. and was not ex-
pected to comprehend"
To the charge that there are more murders
and robberies in New York than In China.
he rejoins by asking "who knows how many
are committed In China In year ?" II there
Is mora wickedness among thousand people
in New York than among q million heather,
that, he argues. "only proves that one
thousand heather In New York have q
greater capacity for wickedness than one
million heather In China" but he does not
undertake to answer the others argument
that tho Chinese social organization Ia better.
Tho heather gives series Of admirable
moral preoepts Of Confucianism, but. the
convert finds the precepts Of Christianity
more admirable. The convert praises our
superiority to the Chinese In science and the
industrial arts, but why, asks the heather,
should substitute machinery for hand labor
in my shoe factory, for instance. and reduce
my force from 800 to 100 men, throwing 400
out Of employment, besides making myself
moro miserable by heavier responsibilities.
with possibly less profit9''
These ara the principal points Of the dis
cussion, In which. we are bound to say, the
heather produces better impression upon
us than that left by the convert. We cannot
help thinking that Mr.. WoNa CHIN Foo is q
more genuine character than Mr.. YAM PHoU
LEE, but that does not affect the force Of
the arguments advanced.